Nader Asks Congress to Put Database of Congressional
Votes on the Internet

Ralph Nader and the Congressional Accountability Project sent letters
today to U.S. Senate and House leaders asking them to place a searchable
database of congressional votes on the Internet, so that citizens could
easily read and study the voting records of their Members of Congress.

Isn't it time for Congress to harness the power of the Internet to serve
democracy?

The Internet is a wonder at distributing information cheaply and efficiently.
The marginal cost of disseminating a document on the Internet is essentially
zero.

Congress ought to use the Internet to enable citizens to inform themselves
about the inner workings of the federal government. But Congress is still
stuck on the basics.

Access to the voting records of elected officials is a cornerstone of
democracy. Yet Congress still has not put on the Internet a database of
congressional votes, searchable by bill name, subject, title, Member name,
etc. Why not? Why the foot-dragging in this area?

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have put their roll
call votes on the Internet -- but not in a searchable format. So it can
take hours of painstaking, frustrating, tedious labor for constituents
to compile their Members' voting records on any given subject. Why should
constituents expend so much time and energy doing something that a computerized
database could do in microseconds? This makes no sense at all.

Congress ought to make it easy for citizens to carry out their civic
duties. An online database of congressional votes would provide a major
advance in the ability of citizens to track the actions of their Members
of Congress. If you're proud of what you and your colleagues do in Washington,
then why not make it as easy as possible for citizens to read and study
these voting records on the Internet?

Will you make this simple congressional reform a top priority for the
107th Congress?

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Gary Ruskin
Director

<---------letter ends here--------->

For more information about the failure of Congress to put its most important
documents and materials on the Internet, see the Congressional Accountability
Project's web page at <http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/CAP.html>.